A chat room is a Web site, part of a Web site, or part of an
online service such as America Online, that provides a venue for communities of
users with a common interest to communicate in real time.
A chat room is a Web site, part of a Web site, or part of an
online service such as America Online, that provides a venue for communities of
users with a common interest to communicate in real time. Forums and discussion
groups, in comparison, allow users to post messages but don't have the capacity
for interactive messaging. Most chat rooms don't require users to have any
special software; those that do, such as Internet Relay Chat (IRC) allow users
to download it from the Internet.
Chat room users register for the chat room of their choice,
choose a user name and password, and log into a particular room (most sites
have multiple chat rooms). Inside the chat room, generally there is a list of
the people currently online, who also are alerted that another person has
entered the chat room. To chat, users type a message into a text box. The
message is almost immediately visible in the larger communal message area and
other users respond. Users can enter chat rooms and read messages without
sending any, a practice known as lurking.
Because chat room messages are spontaneous and instantly
visible, there is a potential for abuse, which may or may not be intentional.
Site hosts typically post a frequently asked questions (FAQ) list to guide
users to appropriate chat room behavior, such as introducing yourself when you
enter a room, making it clear when you are directing a question or response to
a specific user, and reporting disruptive users, for example. Disruptive users
may verbally abuse other chatters, monopolize the conversation, or even just
disable it by repeatedly typing the same word or phrase into the conversation,
a practice (much frowned upon) known as scrolling.
Chat rooms can be found that focus on virtually any aspect
of human endeavor or interest: there are current communities based on classic
movies, Irish ancestry, baton twirling, and psychic readings, for example.
Various sites, such as Yahoo, provide a directory of chat sites. Others, such
as MSN Web Communities, guide users through the steps required to create their
own chat room.